How to Construct Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic Minor Scales

Types of Minor Scales

There are three kinds of minor scales:

1. natural minor
2. harmonic minor
3. melodic minor

Like the major scale, each of the minor scales have seven notes.

Natural Minor Scale

Every natural minor scale corresponds to a major scale. This is because they have the same notes, but start and end on different pitches. The natural minor scale can be found by starting on the sixth degree of the major scale and continuing upward for an octave. For example, the sixth degree of the C major scale is A. The C major scale is shown below with this A highlighted:

C major scale with sixth degree highlighted

If you play the notes from the C major scale starting on A and go up one octave to the next A, the result is the A natural minor scale. This is shown below:

The natural minor scale is often referred to simply as the minor scale. If someone refers to the A minor scale, he or she is generally talking about the natural minor scale. The two other minor scales will almost always be specified, i.e., A harmonic minor or A melodic minor.

Altering the Major Scale

The natural minor scale can also be constructed by altering notes of the major scale. The third, sixth, and seventh degrees of the major scale need to be lowered by one half step to create the natural minor scale. Applying this to a C major scale, you would need to lower E, A, and G a half step. Since these notes are natural, you can do this by making each note flat. Therefore, C D E F G A B becomes C D Eb F G Ab Bb. The C natural minor scale is shown below with the altered notes highlighted:

If the third, sixth, or seventh degree of the major scale are sharp, you can lower these pitches a half step by making them natural. For example, a C# would become a C.

Harmonic Minor Scale

The harmonic minor scale can be created from the natural minor scale by raising the seventh degree of the scale a half step. The other notes are the same as the natural minor. The raised seventh degree creates an interval of one and a half steps between the sixth and seventh degrees, which results in an exotic sounding scale. If you start with the A natural minor scale, you can create an A harmonic minor scale by raising the G a half step to G#. The A harmonic minor scale is shown below:

Melodic Minor Scale

The melodic minor scale is made up of different notes depending on whether you are ascending or descending through the scale. The ascending version of the scale is created by raising the sixth and seventh degrees of the natural minor scale a half step. The descending version of the scale contains the same notes as the natural minor scale. The ascending and descending versions of the scale are more common in classical music. The changes to the scale facilitated certain melodic and harmonic progressions that were common in that music.

Modern musicians often use just the ascending form of the melodic minor for improvisation. The scale is often called the jazz minor scale when used this way.

Ascending Scale

The ascending form of the A melodic minor scale is shown below. The sixth and seventh degrees of the natural minor scale are raised so that F and G become F# and G#.

Descending Scale

The descending version of the scale contains the same notes as the natural minor scale, so F# and G# are lowered to F and G.

Deriving the Melodic Minor Scale from the Major Scale

The ascending form of the melodic minor scale can also be derived by lowering the third degree of any major scale by a half step. Starting with a C major scale, you can create a C melodic minor scale by lowering the third degree of the scale from E to Eb, resulting in the scale: C D Eb F G A B C.

Deriving C melodic minor from the C major scale

Whole and Half Step Patterns for Minor Scales

Minor scales aren't taught in terms of whole and half steps as frequently as the major scale. The patterns of whole and half steps for each minor scale is given below for the sake of completeness, but you don't need to memorize them. It is more important to remember how each minor scale relates to the major scale and the other minor scales.

natural minor: W H W W H W W
harmonic minor: W H W W H W+H H
melodic minor: W H W W W W H (ascending) - descending is the same as natural minor

Scale Degrees in Minor Scales

The same names are used for the degrees of the minor scale that you learned for the major scale with the exception of the seventh degree. The seventh degree in the natural minor scale is called the subtonic because it is a whole step below the tonic. The seventh degree in the harmonic and melodic minor scales is called a leading tone since it is a half step below the tonic.